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Wastewater surveillance (WWS) has been globally recognised to be a useful tool in quantifying SARS-CoV-2 RNA at the community and residential levels without biases associated with case-reporting. The emergence of variants of concern (VOCs) have given rise to an unprecedented number of infections even though populations are increasingly vaccinated. This is because VOCs have been reported to possess higher transmissibility and can evade host immune responses. The B.1.1.529 lineage (Omicron) has severely disrupted global plans to return to normalcy. In this study, we developed an allele-specific (AS) RT-qPCR assay which simultaneously targets the stretch of deletions and mutations in the spike protein from position 24-27 for quantitative detection of Omicron BA.2. Together with previous assays that detect mutations associated with Omicron BA.1 (deletion at position 69 and 70) and all Omicron (mutation at position 493 and 498), we report the validation and time series of these assays from September 2021 to May 2022 using influent samples from two wastewater treatment plants and across four University campus sites in Singapore. Viral RNA concentrations at the treatment plants corroborate with locally reported clinical cases, AS RT-qPCR assays revealed co-incidence of Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 on 12 January 2022, almost two months after initial BA.1 detection in South Africa and Botswana. BA.2 became the dominant variant by the end of January 2022 and completely displaced BA.1 by mid-March 2022. University campus sites were similarly positive for BA.1 and/or BA.2 in the same week as first detection at the treatment plants, where BA.2 became rapidly established as the dominant lineage within three weeks. These results corroborate clinical incidence of the Omicron lineages in Singapore and indicate minimal silent circulation prior to January 2022. The subsequent simultaneous spread of both variant lineages followed strategic relaxation of safe management measures upon meeting nationwide vaccination goals. Ministry of Education (MOE) National Environmental Agency (NEA) National Research Foundation (NRF) Published version This research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister's Office, Singapore, under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) program funding to the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) and the IntraCREATE Thematic Grant (Cities) grant NRF2019-THE001-0003a to SW & JT, the National Environmental Agency (NEA) of Singapore, and funding from the Singapore Ministry of Education and National Research Foundation through an RCE award to SCELSE.

Background：Immunotherapy has dramatically changed the landscape of treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC), but there is lack of effective predictive biomarker, especially for tumors with mismatch repair (MMR) proficiency. Immune response relies to cell surface receptors and their interactions, such as cell-cell recognition, binding and adhesion. However, the function of immunoglobulin superfamily (IGSF) genes in tumor immune microenvironment remains uncharacterized. Methods: This study quantified the immune using the gene expression matrix obtained from the public database. Also the associations between IGSF6 gene expression and immune cell infiltration were assessed. The expression levels of IGSF6, CD8+ and CD4+ T cells in cancer tissues from CRC patients were evaluated. Results: IGSF6 was more highly expressed in CRC tumor tissues than corresponding adjacent normal tissues. And IGSF6 was significantly correlated with immune cell infiltration in MMR-proficient patients. Remarkably, MMR-proficient patients with high IGSF6 expression showed more sensitive to immunotherapy and chemotherapy than those with low IGSF6 expression. Conclusions: In summary, IGSF6 could be a novel biomarker to evaluate immune infiltration and predict therapeutic effect for MMR-proficient CRC.

Additive manufacturing (AM), also known as 3D-printing (3DP) technology, is an advanced manufacturing technology that has developed rapidly in the past 40 years. However, the ceramic material printing is still challenging because of the issue of cracking. Indirect 3D printing has been designed and drawn attention because of its high manufacturing speed and low cost. Indirect 3D printing separates the one-step forming process of direct 3D printing into binding and material sintering, avoiding the internal stress caused by rapid cooling, making it possible to realize the high-quality ceramic component with complex shape. This paper presents the research progress of leading indirect 3D printing technologies, including binder jetting (BJ), stereolithography (SLA), and fused deposition modeling (FDM). At present, the additive manufacturing of ceramic materials is mainly achieved through indirect 3D printing technology, and these materials include silicon nitride, hydroxyapatite functional ceramics, silicon carbide structural ceramics.

Background The optimal treatment for colorectal cancer (CRC) with synchronous peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) and liver metastases (LM) remains controversial. We aimed to investigate clinical outcomes in patients with CRC and concomitant PC and LM who had undergone curative surgery, including resections at both metastatic sites and synchronous intraabdominal chemotherapy. Methods We searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases for eligible studies. Studies focusing on the clinical effects of curative surgery and synchronous intraabdominal chemotherapy for patients with CRC and concomitant PC and LM were included. Meta-analysis results were recorded as hazard ratios (HRs), risk ratios (RRs) and mean differences. Results We included 9 of 998 identified studies in the meta-analysis, involving 746 patients (221 patients with PC + LM, 525 patients with PC). Overall survival (pooled HR 1.68, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.33–2.13, p

Coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) and waste incineration power plants (WIPPs) represent a large portion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) sources in the environment, among which halogenated PAHs (HPAHs) are more toxic to the human body compared with their corresponding parent PAHs. In the current work, we investigated the occurrence, formation mechanism, and toxicity effects of HPAHs in the coal and waste combustion products from three CFPPs and one WIPP. The results indicate that the contents of chlorinated PAHs (Cl-PAHs) in the fly ash from the CFPPs and WIPP were 1.06-1.67 ng·g

By employing the ligand azotetrazolyl-2,7-dihydroxynaphthalene (H3ATD), two linear trinuclear mixed-valence cobalt complexes [CoIICoIII2(HATD)4(H2O)4]·4DMA·3H2O (1, DMA = N,N-dimethylacetamide) and [CoIICoIII2(HATD)4(DMF)2(H2O)2]·2DMF·2H2O (2, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide) were synthesized. Two [2 × 2] grid-like tetranuclear ion-pair complexes [CoII2CoIII2(HATD)4(bpp)2(H2O)2][CoIII(HATD)2]2·8DMF·6H2O (3, bpp = 2,6-di(pyrazol-1-yl)pyridine) and [CoII2CoIII2(HATD)4(bpp)2(H2O)2][CoIII(HATD)2]2·8DMSO·4MeOH (4, DMSO = dimethyl sulphoxide) were obtained by the reaction of complex 1/2 with tridentate-chelating bpp in DMF and DMSO, respectively. The single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that complexes 1 and 2 have a similar core, in which the DMA in 1 acts as a guest molecule, and the DMF in 2 acts as a coordinated molecule and guest molecule. Complexes 3 and 4 are isostructural. All the Co(ii) ions in 1-4 are present in a distorted octahedral geometry. The ac susceptibility measurements show that all complexes display frequency-dependent peaks in the out-of-phase (χm'') component of the alternating-current (ac) magnetic susceptibility data, which is the characteristic behavior of single molecule magnets (SMMs).

Background and aimsA certain number of early-stage colorectal cancer (CRC) patients suffer tumor recurrence after initial curative resection. In this context, an effective prognostic biomarker model is constantly in need. Autophagy exhibits a dual role in tumorigenesis. Our study aims to develop an autophagy-related gene (ATG) signature based on high-throughput data analysis for disease-free survival (DFS) prognosis of patients with stage I/II CRC.MethodsGene expression profiles and clinical information of CRC patients extracted from four public datasets were divided into training cohort (GSE39582, n=566), validation cohort (TCGA CRC, n=624), and meta-validation cohort (GSE37892 and GSE14333, n=420). Autophagy genes significantly associated with prognosis were identified.ResultsAmong 655 autophagy-related genes, a 10 gene ATG signature, which was significantly associated with DFS in the training cohort (HR, 2.76[1.56–4.82]; P=2.06×10-4), was constructed. The ATG signature, stratifying patients into high and low autophagy risk groups, was validated in the validation (HR, 2.29[1.15–4.55]; P=1.5×10-2) and the meta-validation cohorts (HR, 2.5[1.03–6.06]; P=3.63×10-2), and proved to be prognostic in a multivariate analysis. Functional analysis revealed enrichment of several immune/ inflammatory processes in the high autophagy risk group, where significantly higher infiltration of T regulatory cells (Tregs) was observed.ConclusionsOur study established a prognostic ATG signature that effectively predicted DFS for early-stage CRC patients. Meanwhile, the study also revealed the possible correlation between autophagy and immune/ inflammatory processes and tumorigenesis.

Background Prognosis varies among patients within the same colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) stage, indicating the need for reliable molecular markers to enable individualized treatment. This study aimed to investigate gene signatures that can be used for better prognostic prediction of COAD. Methods Gene-expression profiles of COAD patients were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus database (n = 332) and The Cancer Genome Atlas database (n = 431). The relationship between gene signature and relapse-free survival was analysed in the training set (n = 93) and validated in the internal validation set (n = 94) and external validation sets (n = 145 and 431). Results Overall, 11 genes (N-myc downstream regulated gene 1 [NDRG1], fms-like tyrosine kinase 1 [FLT1], lipopolysaccharide binding protein [LBP], fatty acid binding protein 4 [FABP4], adiponectin gene [ADIPOQ], angiotensinogen gene [AGT], activin A receptor, type II-like kinase 1 [ACVRL1], CC chemokine ligand 11 [CCL11], cell division cycle 42 [CDC42], T-cell receptor alpha variable 9_2 [TRAV9_2], and proopiomelanocortin [POMC]) were identified by univariable and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) Cox regression analyses. Based on the risk-score model, the patients were grouped into the high-risk or low-risk groups using the median risk score as the cut-off. The area under the curve (AUC) values for 1-, 3-, and 5-year recurrence were 0.970, 0.849, and 0.859, respectively. Patients in the high-risk group had significantly poorer relapse-free survival than did those in the low-risk group. The predictive accuracy of the 11-gene signature was proven in the validation sets. Our gene signature showed better predictive performance for 1-, 3-, and 5-year recurrence than did the other four models. Conclusions The 11-gene signature showed good performance in predicting recurrence in COAD. The accuracy of the signature for prognostic classification requires further confirmation.

Rationale Glioblastoma is the most lethal and common malignant brain tumor but rare in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1. The clinical findings and pathological findings with gene signatures in female patients have not been well clarified. Patient concerns A 51-year-old female patient complained of headache and left limb weakness lasting for 20 days. The patient underwent a cesarean section 20 years ago and hysterectomy 1 year ago because of uterine leiomyomas. Multiple cafe-au-lait spots and neurofibromas were found over patient's chest, neck, back, and arms. The myodynamia of left distant and proximate epipodite were grade 0 and grade 1 respectively. The myodynamia of lower left limb was grade 3. Diagnoses Magnetic resonance imaging revealed a malignant lesion which was most likely a glioblastoma in the right temporo-parietal lobe, approximately 5.6 × 5.9 × 6.9 cm in size with a rounded boundary. Interventions A right temporo-parietal craniotomy was performed to resect the space-occupying lesion for gross total removal. Then, the patient received concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Histological examination confirmed a glioblastoma without v-RAF murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 gene, isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 gene, and telomerase reverse transcriptase gene promoter mutations. Outcomes After surgery, the headache was relieved and the muscular strength of left limbs did improve. After receiving the standard treatment regimen, the patient was alive at 13 months follow-up. Lessons This is the first reported glioblastoma in female neurofibromatosis type 1 patient without v-RAF murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 gene, isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 gene, and telomerase reverse transcriptase gene promoter mutations. Tumors in adult patients with these signatures were less aggressive with well-circumscribed border and had long-term survivals which strengthened the evidence that these patients may comprise a unique subset in glioblastoma.

Medium-to-long term energy prediction plays a widely-acknowledged role in guiding national energy strategy and policy but could also lead to serious economic and social chaos when poorly executed. A consequent issue may be the effectiveness of these predictions, and sources that errors can be traced back to. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published its annual World Energy Outlook (WEO) concerning energy demand based on its long term world energy model (WEM) under specific assumptions towards uncertainties such as population, macroeconomy, energy price and technology. Unfortunately, some of its predictions succeeded while others failed. We in this paper attempt to decompose the leading source of these errors quantitatively. Results suggest that GDP acts as the leading source of demand forecasting errors while fuel price comes thereafter, which requires extra attention in forecasting. Gas, among all fuel types witness the most biased projections. Ignoring the catch-up effect of acquiring rapid economic growth in developing countries such as China will lead to huge mistake in predicting global energy demand. Finally, asymmetric cost of under- and over-estimation of GDP suggests a potentially less conservative stance in the future.

Accelerator control system is the core of the accelerator. Laboratory physics and industrial control system (Epics) is jointly developed by the United States Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and Argonne Laboratory (ANL) control system integration tool, which is widely used in the accelerator control system. EPICS control system has the advantages of openness, practicality, and reliability. In this paper, we study the accelerator physics equipment send PV and applications of OPCUA variables under EPICS. With the application of PV and OPCUA variables in EPICS and the use of visual control development platform CSS, accelerator controllers can command the physical hardware of accelerator better in a software way.

Organic thin film memcapacitors are designed and implemented by an organic multilayered structure, consisting of a semiconducting carrier accumulation layer and a polymer electret charge trapping layer. The capacitive states of the device can continuously and reversibly change upon programming/erasing at high biases, whereas they show nonvolatility upon reading at low biases or power off. The memcapacitive characteristics are ascribed to the modulation of the carrier accumulation threshold resulting from the cumulative and reversible charge trapping in the polymer electret layer. The organic thin film memcapacitors may provide more opportunities for developing organic-based synaptic electronic devices.

With more and more emphasizes on the environment and resources, the concept of green buildings has been widely accepted. Building materials are vectors of architectures, only if green building materials and related technical means are used, can we construct green buildings to achieve the purpose of energy conservation and environmental protection. This paper introduces the relationship between green building materials and green buildings, the current situation of green building materials in China, as well as the measures to accelerate the development of green building materials.